The Challenges of Transportation Today

Regardless of the era, people moved. Whether if you were a Viking that navigated the seas, the Chinese that invented the compass, or the Arab that invented the kamal, people found ways to move from one place to another.

In America, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was built forming the National Highway System of the United States today. In 1992, they declared the project completed, but there are a lot more challenges and new projects to overcome. The whole route has a total of 47,856 miles, one-quarter of all vehicles use the interstate system and the cost of construction in 2006 was $425 billion.

Now let’s take into consideration the cost for traffic. It costs $124 billion a year. And the cost of traffic will increase to $186 billion in 2030. With the American population growing 3.3 million per year according to the Census Bureau’s decennial census, finding positive solutions to decrease traffic becomes a major challenge.

Some studies convey that the urban population by 2030 will be 60%. If right now we already face major traffic, imagine by 2030.

Other countries have implemented strategies to decrease traffic. For example, Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul had a 16-lane freeway. They removed the freeway which decreased traffic, increased public transportation, and brought environmental improvements to the city.

In America, a few cities are trying to improve their public transportation infrastructure, but there are still projects concentrated on developing more highways. For example, in Dallas, the Texas Department of Transportation mentioned a study to remove the bandwagon freeway, but they are already planning a $100 million renovation project of the freeway.